


bastards of young

by sapphirepencil



Category: JUDGE EYES: 死神の遺言 | Judgment
Genre: Coming of Age, Enemies to Friends, Friendship, Growing Up, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Trans Male Character, Underage Drinking, and maybe to more? that remains to be seen., ill add more characters soon i promise lol, theyre both trans lol, trans puns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:27:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29081631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphirepencil/pseuds/sapphirepencil
Summary: ever since they first ran into each other between the neon lights of kamurocho, kaito and yagami can't seem to get rid of each other. at first they cant stand the sight of each other, but as time goes on and they rub shoulders more and more, it changes from hatred to a mutual respect, though once a secret is revealed, they find a bond that neither of them could shake if they tried. life changes with them[title is from bastards of young by the replacements, as are the chapter titles]
Relationships: Kaito Masaharu & Yagami Takayuki
Kudos: 4





	bastards of young

**Author's Note:**

> i finished je not long ago and was absolutely in love w the characters, though yagami and kaito are particularly dear to me and i think they have a really interesting and heartfelt dynamic. i also wanted to write more trans content particularly about growing up, since im a trans guy myself. this ended up a lot longer and meandering than i intended, but whats new lol. shout out to my dear friends for reading this before i posted <3  
> please forgive the formatting. this is simply way too long for me to try and manually fix every weird indent but i hope it doesnt affect the writing too badly

Yagami and Kaito are practically inseparable from their teenage years onwards. 

They’re a year apart when they meet, at fifteen and sixteen, but Kaito looks twenty-five and Yagami’s just a scrappy kid. They fight a lot. There’s some sort of magnet between the two, almost, they can’t avoid running into each other in alleyways and behind random restaurants. It’s all born of these accidental run-ins, and there’s some sort of bright light in them both that only manifests in black eye and bloody noses. 

Of course, things change a little. That fire smolders a little less. 

But they still can’t get rid of each other- especially because Matsugane’s taken Yagami under his wing and Yagami actually listens to him. Kaito had broken the kid’s nose and Matsugane had happened upon them right after, and since then he always kept an eye out Yagami. There’s a permanent crick to his nose that’s only noticable at a closer look. 

At least, they can’t fight as hard anymore, because then Matsugane will yell at them both and he can be pretty damn scary if he wants. It doesn’t stop them from glaring, from ‘accidentally’ shoving each other when they walk by, bared teeth. 

“You’re such a goddamn shrimp,” Kaito tells Yagami one day, when he’s hanging around the Matsugane office. “So damn skinny.”

Yagami glares. “And I still kick your ass, and you’re beefed up like you’re on steroids. Aren’t you like, seventeen?”

“At least I have muscles, asshole.”

Really, Kaito tries not to provoke Yagami. He knows that Matsugane will be upset, and there’s something that he sees in that kid. But that kid is such an  _ asshole _ , and it’s frustrating always seeing each other, always daring the other one to throw the first punch. 

Kaito’s jogging up Tenkaichi, he’s supposed to meet somebody else in the family on the corner of Park and Nakamichi in like five minutes and he’s halfway across town, and it’s probably a bad idea to be late. 

He spies a side street up ahead- that could help him shave off time, he thinks. Kaito dashes across the street making for the turn, cuts around the corner-

Only to come face to face with Yagami. 

They both stumble back, narrowly avoiding crashing straight into each other. It takes a moment for Kaito to process it- Yagami looks like he’s running too and in a hurry- but more importantly, he’s clutching a cat in his arms.

They stare at each other for what feels like ten hours- though is probably just ten seconds. In the meantime, the cat tries to worm its way out of Yagami’s arms (it has a collar around its neck, though it looks a little bit scruffed up)

“Um,” Yagami says. “I have to, uh, go.”

Kaito coughs. “Yeah- yeah, me too.” 

Awkwardly, they part ways.

One day, Kaito walks into the Matsugane family office to see Yagami sat in one of the chairs at the table, scowling. There’s a couple yakuza grunts in the room (like Kaito) but none of them are paying him any mind. 

It’s often that Yagami’s hanging around the office. He’s even befriended a couple of the older guys, (Kaito doesn’t understand how they can stand him for more than a couple minutes). And Matsugane’s always looking out for him, though Kaito doesn’t really understand that either. But at least it means Yagami’s trying to fight him less. Sometimes they end up having these weird, stilted conversations, that neither of them really know how to get out of but they try and act somewhat civil around here. Yagami’s just kind of a dick, in Kaito’s opinion. 

“Matsugane get on your ass again?” Kaito asks. He means to sound teasing, biting, though he’s not sure if it comes out that way. 

Yagami  _ psh _ es. “Yeah, whatever. Get your ass kicked recently?”

“Fuck off.” 

Kaito sits down in a chair opposite and a bit to the right of Yagami, just to rest his legs (been running all around the damn town all day) when he notices the other’s shirt- it’s all black and emblazoned with a minimalist anime face that he recognizes. 

Without thinking, Kaito blurts out, “Do you like Yu Yu Hakusho too?”

Yagami starts. For a moment, he looks like he’s about to bolt out of his chair, then he looks  _ pissed _ . Kaito wonders if he’s done something wrong (or if he’ll finally get to beat Yagami’s ass again), but the kid just settles back into his chair. 

“Yeah,” he says. “You watch it too?”

And they end up talking about some dumb shonen for ages, the first time they’ve held an extended conversation without any aggression.

Yagami is not happy about this. Not happy at all. It feels like he’s admitting a weakness, or something, but he doesn’t see any better option. 

“Do you think you can help me?” he asks Kaito. “I’ll give you a cut of the payment.”

They’re sat outside on a bench in Children’s Park, because Yagami was on his way to the Matsugane office to talk to Kaito and saw him sitting there, devouring a bento from one of the many nearby convenience stores. 

Kaito peers at him from over the bento he’s still wolfing down. There’s a grain of rice on his cheek. “How come?”   
“Huh?”

“Why come to me?”

As insufferable as it is, it does sound like a genuine question, and not some attempt for Kaito to one-up Yagami. Yagami huffs, leaning back against the wood of the bench that’s warmed from the sun. All around them, the city is alive, the sun shining behind low clouds, and nobody notices the two boys sat on a park bench. They could just be friends, after all, cutting class. Just two normal boys. “This seems like a two-man job, if the woman’s husband really is connected to a gang. And as much as I don’t want to admit it, you’re strong, and I could use the brawn.”

Kaito takes one last bite of his bento, having picked it entirely clean, and sets it and the chopsticks down. Surprisingly, he smiles. “Alright. I’m in. Could use something more fun in my life.”

This is not the first time Yagami’s fucked up, and he doesn’t think it’ll be the last. Though this time there’s somebody else with him in the mess, which has both its pros and its cons.

“I knew I was being followed!” the man exclaims. 

Yagami had tailed the man in question, Yamada Makoto, whos wife believed that he was either cheating on her or mixed up with his old gang. Kaito had followed Yagami from a greater distance, waiting for the signal to join up with him and finally confront Yamada. 

To be perfectly honest, Yagami was positive that Yamada was cheating on his wife, not with a gang. He didn’t give the impression of somebody who kicked it with gangsters- yet he’d only come to this conclusion after a bit more snooping  _ after  _ he’d asked Kaito, so he couldn’t back out of bringing him. Regardless, Yagami prepared for him being a cheater, bringing along his cruddy Polaroid camera to snap any incriminating pics. If there was any fight, it’d probably be short as hell and not much. He didn’t really think ahead to that, doesn’t really prepare for a fight or dress for it. 

Yagami had tailed him into the Champion District, and its many alleys and empty lots, and Kaito and Yagami had foolishly confronted Yamada in one that had only one entrance, and one exit. Meaning, a fantastic place for an ambush. 

The two of them had barely cleared the entrance to the lot when something slammed into the backs of Yagami’s knees. 

He landed kneeling, facing up towards the sky, his knees bent awkwardly under him. Kaito slammed into the ground with a yelp, landing on his side. (At least he had been taken by surprise too.) 

It’s cold as hell, to Yagami, though tonight’s fierce wind was blocked by the high concrete walls. Streetlamps and lights from square windows illuminate the lot enough to see what’s in it. Yamada, now holding a switchblade, and about five other gang members holding pipes and clubs menacingly. 

Yagami may have been wrong in his predictions earlier. And now he was completely unprepared for a fight. 

Then Yamada frowns, looking down at them with a curled lip. “It’s just two ugly teenage girls.”

Yagami’s stomach flips. 

“Oh, fuck off,” Kaito grumbles. 

He rolls into a kneeling position, like Yagami, but a man with a pipe wrench barks, “Stay down!” 

Kaito, surprisingly, does. His teeth are bared, though, which Yagami has long since realized means he’s raring for a fight. 

“Are you with Ruka?” Yamada asks them, looming over them. “Did that bitch really not trust me?”

What a piece of work. “You should be nicer to your wife,” Yagami tells him. 

He is next met with a swift kick in the face. 

His head snaps back with the blow, and his whole body goes with it, his shoulders smacking into the concrete underneath him. For a moment, all Yagami sees is stars. He’s aware of the groan he made, from the shock and then the pain. Blood’s dripping down into his mouth. 

Then he looks to his left, and sees Kaito next to him. They make eye contact. Kaito grins at him, and Yagami nods back. 

That’s the first time they actually fight side-by-side. 

It’s not a long fight, and they don’t fight to win. Yagami wrestles the nearest weapon out of somebody’s hands, and Kaito kicks the knees out of the first man he sees as he jumps to his feet. Back to back, swinging fists. It’s only them and the streetlights. 

They only fight until they can make a mad dash out of the lot, which isn’t long. The opening is short, and they both notice at the same time, and acknowledge it with another shared look. 

Then they take off. 

Feet pound over concrete like a heartbeat and the city whizzes by in all its lights that rival the galaxy. They bowl through people, the dizzying night crowds of Kamurocho, until they break onto the wider streets. Kaito hates running, but his lungs are still breathing with the thrill of that fight. Yagami’s nose is bleeding and getting blood all over his shirt. Shouts fade behind them as they put more distance between them and their pursuers. 

Halfway across town, in an alley near Public Park 3, they slow to a halt together. 

“Think we lost ‘em?” Yagami wheezes. He’s a bit hunched over, breathing hard. 

Kaito collapses against a wall. “I sure damn hope so.” Stamina was never his thing. Neither was running. Fuck, his legs hurt. 

Yagami leans against the wall next to him, holding his thin shirt (how is he not cold in just that?) over his bleeding nose. “You- were good in that fight.” His voice sounds super airy, though, and his chest is heaving. He doesn’t seem to be breathing deep enough to fix it, and he looks shaky. 

That was a genuine compliment, Kaito is sure. “You too, man. You were crazy good at tailing them too. But are you okay? You seem pretty out of breath.”

Yagami’s shakes his head, still, his chest is heaving. “I’m- fine. I’m-”

“You sure don’t sound fine.”

“Ugh, fuck off.” He tugs at his collar. 

A moment passes between them, of Yagami hunched over and unable to catch his breath, and Kaito watching apprehensively. 

Yagami looks up at Kaito from his awkward position. His brow is furrowed. “Listen- I- can you look away? I’ll tell you when- to look back.”

Confused, Kaito does. 

He busies himself with looking up at the cityscape around them. It’s curious, how the tops of the buildings look closer together than the bottom. A bit of a breeze sweeps through the alley, despite the buildings all around them, and it’s welcome to Kaito’s sweaty, sweaty face. God, he’s tired. Is Yagami okay?

Despite not being told to yet, Kaito looks back. Yagami’s currently pulling his shirt back over his head. At his feet, there’s a small bundle of elastic-looking fabric, around the same color of his skin. 

As soon as Yagami sees Kaito looking at him, Yagami snatches the fabric up from the ground immediately, and throws his jacket back on. 

A tense moment passes this time, of awkward eye contact. Elastic fabric, about skin colored. Yagami being even more touchy than usual. The- outlines of something under his thin t-shirt that weren’t there before. 

Oh.

“I’m leaving now,” Yagami blurts out, and whips around on his heel. 

Impulsively, Kaito grabs his wrist. 

Yagami glares back at him, trying to pull away. “Let me go.” His voice is low with anger, low and dangerous. 

“Wait, wait, hold on.” Kaito tugs on his wrist. Yagami tugs away angrily. “Dude, hold on, I’m-”

Yagami finally wrenches his wrist away. “What is your  _ problem _ ?” he snaps. “Fuck off.”

Kaito doesn’t mean to shout.  _ “I’m trying to say I’m the same, asshole _ !” 

The kid does stop, but he’s staring back at him with a blank expression. “Huh?”

Ah, great. This is the first time Kaito has had to do this. He doesn’t know how to do this. At all. Swallowing it down, he resists the urge to panic. Stupidly, hi pats at his own chest. “Me. Too. I’m.” He gives it a few more pats for good measure. “Y’know. The same.”  _ Trans _ , but Kaito doesn’t say it.

The only noises are the city again, that heartbeat that doesn’t cease. Yagami’s staring at Kaito with an indiscernible expression (wide eyes, hard mouth). Kaito feels like an idiot and a half. At least  _ he  _ hadn’t worn his binder today.

Yagami straightens up a little, now able to breathe a little better. “I had no idea.” 

“I mean, hey, me neither.” Kaito rubs the back of his neck, now he’s blush-warm from both the run and this embarrassment. “I thought we both pass pretty well.”

Yagami snorts. “Same, until that fucker called us girls.” He stretches his arms up, rolls out his shoulders. “I really thought that there wasn’t going to be that much of a fight, or a run or anything.”

“Well, we’re here now.”

There’s still blood all over Yagami’s face and shirt, and Kaito’s legs still hurt from the run. But Yagami’s eyes crinkle in the corners a bit as he gives his goodbye and they part ways, and Kaito only realizes as he’s walking back home that that’s the closest thing to a smile Kaito’s ever seen on the guy.

Yagami’s hair is soaked to his forehead from rain, and water runs in rivulets down his face as he shoves open the door to Tender. His teeth chatter from the cold. 

Oh, but it’s warm and dry in Tender, and the lights are dim. Much more quiet and calm than the streets outside, where a sudden torrent of rain seemed to catch everybody by surprise. 

Only one person is seated at the bar. Normally Yagami would pay that no mind, but they’re a broadly framed in a gaudy button-down shirt- 

“Ta-bo?” Kaito asks, incredulously, looking up from the bar. “You- are soaking wet.”

Yagami resists an urge to grimace at the nickname (looks like Kaito picked up calling him that from Matsugane). “Yeah. Didn’t check the forecast this morning, I guess.”

Masuda tosses Yagami a towel from behind the bar with a sympathetic smile, and Yagami wipes down his face and hair. Ugh. He’s still mad that he was caught by such surprise, it was like there was a clap of thunder and suddenly he was soaked through to the skin. After a moment, he takes a seat at the bar next to Kaito. 

Kaito has a glass of what looks like whiskey on the counter in front of him. “I didn’t know you hang around here, Ta-bo.” 

Yagami brushes his damp hair out of his face. Damn, he needs a haircut. “This is that bar where I get most of my jobs from.”

“Ohh, you’ve mentioned it before.” Kaito takes another sip of his whiskey. “I just happened by.”

Across the bar, Masuda frowns at the two of them, he’s sharp, and always has been. “Young man, I didn’t check for I-D,” he says. “But you’re not underage, are you?”

Kaito’s face goes blank. 

Yagami resists the urge to laugh, hiding his smile behind the towel- he’d originally gotten his position for odd jobs by lying about his age, but Masuda figured him out after a couple months. He still gets to work around here, at least. 

“No comment,” Kaito replies. Quickly, though, he downs the rest of his whiskey. 

Yagami puts on his best poker face. He’s trying hard to avoid Masuda’s lecture on underage drinking, which he has heard far too many times. He is now well, well-aware that drinking before your brain developes permanently screws it up, and all that jazz. Yagami really doesn’t drink much anyways, compared to somebody who’s above drinking age. Kaito’s the heavier drinker for sure. 

“Ta-bo, you wanna get lunch?” Kaito asks suddenly. Yeah, he knows for sure that he’s been figured out, probably just trying to make a getaway. 

Yagami goes along with it, though; mostly out of his own amusement. He’s sort of resigned himself to not being able to get rid of the guy, anyways. “Sure. Akaushimaru?”

“Fine by me.”

They go to the door, Masuda peering unapprovingly behind them

Oh, right. It’s still pouring rain outside. The two of them stand in the doorway for a moment, looking at the downpour. Raindrops splatter in fat and dirty puddles that congeal on the curb, bouncing the city’s reflection all around.

“Please tell me you have an umbrella,” Yagami says. 

Kaito shoves his hands in his pockets. “Nope.” But he looks over at Yagami. “I’ll race you.”

“Huh?”

“It’s not that far, is it? Let’s go!”

Kaito takes off. He cuts through the rain like mad bullet, splashing up those puddles under his feet. 

Never one to be one-upped, Yagami takes off after him with a yell. Rain and cold be damned, he’s faster and he’ll make sure they both know it. 

From there on, at sixteen and seventeen, they grow to be inseparable. 

Part of it, Yagami thinks, might be practicality. It pays to have somebody else around who gets it- who’s trans too. 

Though also, they just can’t get rid of each other. Always run into each other, at both the right and wrong times. This time it doestn’t result in fist fights, like it had a year ago, or passive-aggressive comments and glares like it had after. They actually get along. More than get along. 

One night, Kaito drops by Yagam’s tiny-cheap place with a bag of cheap fast food (neither of them have outgrown a habit of junk food), as is usual on his nights off. 

“Hey, Ta-bo,” he greets Yagami.

Yagami side-eyes him, from where he’s lounging on his futon. “What, just barging in unannounced now, I see?” There’s a small quirk to his lips when he says it, though, and Kaito knows that it’s his smile (Yagami’s not that expressive). 

Kaito sits on the floor next to him, putting the bag between them. “You know it. The Coke in there is for me, by the way, I didn’t get you anything.” Yagami hates fizzy drinks. 

“Uh-huh.” Yagami reaches into the bag between them, wrangling a cardboard box of fries cracking it open. “Cheers.”

That’s how a lot of their nights go.

New Year’s Eve, the last night of 2000, soon to be 2001. They’re currently in the middle of an argument whether the century truly ends now, or if it already ended last year. 

“But the number in front changed,” Kaito argues, waving around his bottle of soda. “That should mean it’s a new century, I don’t care!”

Yagami huffs. “But  _ think about it _ . We consider the number ten as part of the first ten numbers, right? Not zero? So why would we consider 2000 as the start of the century?”

"That’s just fucking stupid.”

And they’re just one part of the city on a busy, busy night. Certainly not the only strangers arguing on the curb of Theater Square (though most of the strangers doing so are well past drunk). Anything could happen around them, tragedy or comedy, but they’re together to ring in the new year. In fact, they’re so caught up in their debate that they don’t even notice the countdown. 

With a  _ BOOM, _ the fireworks go up around them, illuminating their faces in shocks of shadow and unnatural colors. People cheer, hugging and kissing, startling them both. 

Yagami trips on the curb in his surprise, and falls right onto Kaito. Kaito just laughs and shoves him back onto his feet.

“Happy new year!” Kaito yells at him, over the din of the crowd. 

And Yagami means it when he shouts it back. 

They never ask about each others’ pasts. How they got here, became punks and all- because if there’s one truth between them, it’s that nobody comes to Kamurocho. They all only end up there.

So they never share that, nor their parents’ names, or what lives they’d lived before. Right now they’re just Kaito and Yagami, and they’re two dumbass teenagers arguing in the arcade over one of the games (they’re probably about to be kicked out by the guy at the desk). They don’t ask for anything else. 

March of that year, Kaito gets his own apartment. He’d been staying at the family barracks before then, like all the low-level grunts do. But now he was finally in a good spot where he could rent a crappy little apartment in a cheap part of town.

Kaito invites Yagami over and they celebrate with take-out. The walls are thin, it doesn’t have much counter space and only has a tiny little sink, the view is sort of terrible, and it smells a bit like stale tobacco and other scents Kaito doesn’t want to try and name. But it’s  _ his _ . His place, place to sleep, hang out, loaf around and do whatever he wants. Hell, he could hang out shirtless if he wants. 

The thought makes him grin and toss back another swig of soda. Kaito has since gotten that lecture from that bartender guy, and even though he’s  _ almost  _ legal, Kaito can also appreciate cornerstore soda just as well. 

Yagami’s smiling at him, that weird, half-smile that he always does. “Nice having your own place?”

“Oh, hell yeah it is.” Kaito sets his can down. “Can do anything I want around here, y’know?"

“Well. That’s sort of the point.” Yagami lists them off as if he’s counting them on his fingers, in between picking up hunks of beef with his chopsticks. “Wake up when you want, sleep in when you want- well, if you don’t have work. But you can do what you want in it, y’know, eat, hang out, bring girls over.” 

Something in Kaito squirms a bit at that last comment. Not squirms, but he feels weird.

Meanwhile, completely unbothered, Yagami takes that big bite of food, swallows. “Damn, this joint has good meat.”

“Oh my god, it really does.” Kaito leans over to peer at Yagami’s takeout box. “You tried the teriyaki yet? It’s damn good.” 

As soon as it appears, the comment fades right out of Kaito’s mind. It’s his night. He’s got an apartment, his own place, and all he wants to do is celebrate moving in. 

“Hoh, law school?”

Yagami nods, not looking up. He’s got his nose buried in all sorts of leaflets of papers that he has been going through since before Kaito showed up at his apartment. “I think so. It’s interesting, y’know.” He taps his finger to his lips, thinking. “I think it would be nice to defend others like that.” It sounds like he’s going to say something more, but he never does. 

Kaito smiles from where he’s sat across from Yagami at his kotatsu. The guy had barely noticed Kaito when he’d come in (Yagami had given him a copy of his key a while ago) until Kaito sat down. “Quite the idealist there, you know. You never finished high school, though, right?”

“Nope.” Yagami flips through to another paper. “Not all universities require a diploma, but then I probably have to do really well on entrance exams. I’m getting a late start with this anyways, compared to people my age, since I’m already eighteen and most people have beens studying for years at this point.”

The legendary entrance exams. Kaito couldn’t imagine- he thinks he’s doing pretty alright how he is now, without a highschool degree himself. Yagami’s also doing pretty well for himself, to be fair. “You’ll be fine, you’re smarter than any of those bastards anyways. It’s good to see you thinking towards the future.”

Yagami finally looks up at Kaito proper, still tapping on his lip. “You put much though towards your future at all?”

“Me?” Kaito leans back on his hands, stretching out his legs under the low table. He frowns. “Well not, like, career or school wise. Probably not going to be doing much else but getting higher up in the ranks, y’know. But I have been thinking of… um. Surgery, and all of that, considering my life’s been getting more stable recently and I actually have time to think about it.”

“What have you been thinking?”

Good question. Kaito shrugs. “Dunno. I don’t think I want surgery, I think my tits and all are just fine.” That one makes Yagami laugh a little. “But I think going on hormones would be nice. I think I’d look fantastic with a beard. Have you been thinking about it?”

“Yeah.” Yagami sets down the university papers he’s holding and rolls out his shoulders (how long had he been hunched over reading?). “I’m like the opposite of you. I want my tits  _ gone _ . I’m so sick of binding, at least you can get by with just a sports bra or something.”

Kaito laughs. “Maybe if you beefed up a little you could just pass ‘em off as pecs.”

“Oh, fuck off.”

Kaito gets his first big promotion in the family, and he won’t stop talking about for weeks. Yagami can tell that Matsugane is proud of him. Kaito is very good at what he does, even if what he does is being a criminal in Tokyo’s underbelly. The two boys celebrate it by going out to dinner at Kanrai, and end up laughing so loud that they get a whole lot of rude glares from other customers. Neither of them notice it until way later.

Not long after that, Yagami starts studying in earnest for university entrance exams (Matsugane promised to send him through school). He’s got a very strict balance between all these crazy odd jobs he does and studying, though it isn’t consistent, since a lot of these jobs require being around and about at odd hours. Though the odd jobs seem to support him alright, which Kaito thinks is pretty good for a guy with no family and no degree- yet. 

Kaito often drops in on Yagami as he’s studying. He is not much help, but he can at least pull the other out of getting too engrossed in his studying. Yagami tends to forget to eat when he’s stressed out or too busy with something, Kaito has long since noticed, so he drags him out to dinner or brings food with him when he drops by. 

“C’mon, dude, let’s go out,” Kaito is pestering him one day. Yagami’s sat at his kotatsu table, reading some book he checked out from the library, and Kaito’s leaning back-to-back against him, staring at the wall. 

Yagami stays where he is. “You can go out on your own, you know.”

“Blegh. Boring. Do you wanna go to the arcade? Go out for the night?”

No response- but no sound of scribbling pencil or turning pages either.

Kaito grins. “Sounds like a yes to me, Ta-bo. C’mon, take a break.”

There’s no response again for a moment. Then Yagami sighs, defeated (though he doesn’t sound all that torn up about it). “Alright- but you’re paying for dinner.”

Closing the door behind him, Yagami resists the urge to all-but-flop to the ground. Instead, he leans his back against the wooden door and tilt his head up, breathing in deep. 

God, he’s tired. Ran halfway around Kamurocho and then into neighboring districts on some dumb job today, taking way longer than usual. And for what? He’s on the verge of passing out from exhaustion, and the reward wasn’t even that much. 

Slowly, he slides to the ground, until he’s sat on the floor with his knees bunched up towards his chest. At least he  _ knew  _ he was going to be running around all day and opted not to bind, but now he’s sweaty from all the layers. 

Top surgery is starting to seem more and more enticing. Hell, if he’s going to be a lawyer, he’ll be making big bucks, right? How expensive is top surgery anyways?

As Yagami ponders this, his cellphone rings. He glares at his pocket for disturbing his rest, but pulls it out and answers it anyway. 

“Ta-bo?” the voice comes on the other end. “It’s Kaito.”

“What’s up?” Does Yagami detect a hint of urgency in his tone?

“I… well.” His voice is raspy, softer than usual. “Listen. Long story short, I got mugged, and I can barely move my hand to clean the damn wounds. Could you help out?”

All tiredness is forgotten. Yagami’s heart is thrumming. “Shit. Is it bad?” If  _ Kaito  _ had been beaten in a fight, well...

“Dunno. I’m bleeding real bad on my face, one of them nicked me with a knife.”

Yagami hurriedly peels himself off the door, jumping to his feet. He hadn’t even gotten the chance to take off his shoes or put away his things, but since he was immediately heading out, that wasn’t that bad. “Alright. Be over soon.” A glance around his apartment, and he grabs some bags of snacks he had in the room (just in case), and off he went. 

The stairs up to Kaito’s apartment are rickety and they ring with a hollow sort of dullness as Yagami hurries up. He resists the urge to sprint. Part of him knows that Kaito is okay, for the most part, he’s just about the strongest bastard around. Though at the same time, maybe it’s the fact that Kaito did call for help that’s got him so worried. 

Either way, Yagami knocks on the door and waits.

The door opens after a moment, sending a rectangle flood of light out into the cold dark. Kaito is backlit by the glow, all silhouette, and Yagami can’t see much of the damage. “Hey. Thanks for coming over.” (says it as if they’re just hanging out or something). He steps aside so Yagami can come in. 

“Of course, man.” Yagami goes in, kicks off his shoes as Kaito closes the door behind them. “Show me how bad it is.”

Kaito turns to look at him, and now in the light, Yagami can see everything. His face is littered with bruises, fireworks of purple and blue that explode all across his skin. The skin looks swollen in places, right around the eyes and the mouth, and red blood gathers near the bow of his mouth. Most notable is the smudges of red on the side of his face, like puffs of smoke, from his eyebrow to his jaw. The source comes from a deep cut just above his eye, which looks like its stopped bleeding for the most part.

“You look like shit,” Yagami tells him.

Kaito laughs, then winces. “Sorry, hurts to move my face.” He hurries back to the small apartment sink, where towels stained with red are piled on the counter next to a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. “And my hand. Got stomped on. And they stole my fucking wallet.” He holds up his right hand, which is about as purple as his face. Particularly on the fingers, Yagami can see, there’s a thick line of bruises from knuckle to thumb. 

“Got it- that’s why you needed a hand. No pun intended.” Yagami stands next to Kaito at the sink. Internally, he feels sick. He hates the sight of blood. Hates the smell of it. His stomach turns, and he can’t help but to think back on unfortunate memories. “I got you. Just relax.”

The best plan of attack is probably to clean that cut on his forehead, Yagami considers as he quickly washes his hands, since it’s probably the most major wound. That and his hand are the most concerning, though there’s less he can do about a bruised hand. 

He wets a clean paper towel (the sink always makes a strange ringing noise in Kaito’s apartment), Kaito leans against the counter. Yagami takes Kaito’s face in his hand, trying to avoid the worst of bruises and ending up with his hand under the other’s chin. At least that’ll help him stay still. It’s almost awkwardly close, but neither of them even think about that. 

Yagami raises the towel to the wound, and starts carefully scrubbing at some of the gore. Kaito hisses with pain but doesn’t move. 

He does his best to be gentle. It’s hard to do so, when the cut is so deep and Kaito’s brow keeps twitching (not his fault, it’s only a pain response). A minute or so passes, maybe, of Kaito with his eyes closed and Yagami trying to clean the jagged cut with increasing concern. Too much blood keeps coming away. 

“Kaito,” Yagami says, stepping back a little.

Kaito opens his eyes to a squint. “What’s up?”

“I think you need stitches.” Yagami turns away to throw the towel onto the ever-increasing pile of them- God, what a mess. Not as much of a mess as Kaito’s face right now, though, with the fresh bruises and blood. “It’s messed up- what even happened to you?”

It sort of looks like Kaito’s trying and failing to not show his emotions (Yagami knows it’s because it just hurts to move his face) but the scowl still blooms. “I don’t think it was yakuza related. Was taking a shortcut behind some buildings, three guys get on me from behind.” Kaito sees Yagami’s raised brow. “I mean, I did beat them in the end.”

Sure does not look like it. Yagami sets his jaw. “I’m taking you to the hospital.”

Kaito splutters, though its strained. “No- Ta-bo, it’s not that bad.”

“Do you have to be so stubborn?” he asks dryly. 

“Yeah, because I’m fine.”

Yagami surveys the room, which in itself is a testament to how bad it is by how much of a mess was created trying to fix Kaito up. “Try moving your hand,” he says.

Surprised for a moment, Kaito looks down at his hand, opening, then closing his mouth. He looks back up at Yagami with a new glare. “I’m  _ fine _ .”

“Uh-huh. Come on, we might be able to catch a bus there.”

That’s how they ended up on a bus half past midnight, as two of three occupants. The bus’s bright lights only serve to accentuate Kaito’s beat-up state, that and the ice pack he’s holding to his brow, but the bus driver doesn’t give them more than a second glance. They end up having to walk half a block since the bus doesn’t stop right at the hospital, and they’re the only ones under the streetlights as they do. 

Kaito had been grumbling a bit on the way there, but they’re still sat in the small emergency room reception area despite it (the faux-leather couches are uncomfortable to sit on, Yagami had claimed them when Kaito was speaking to the receptionist, but now he wished he had chosen different chairs). It’s not a particularly busy night by the looks of it, the room is nowhere near full and the white walls make it seem even emptier. Kaito’s bruises and blood on his shirt paired with Yagami’s scruffy looks does attract a few wary glances from the “normal” folk in the emergency room.

“I hate hospitals,” Kaito mumbles. Yagami does too, but he only nods in agreement instead of adding anything else. 

Not long after, Kaito gets called up by a nurse. 

“I’ll be waiting outside,” Yagami tells him, standing too. “Just by the entrance.”

Outside, the night air is cold, and the hospital parking lot seems sort of like a graveyard. Yagami finds a bench a little away from the entrance to sit on, but its metal and freezes the bottoms of his legs and his back. Can he not find a single comfortable place to sit today? 

He leans back, trying to get comfortable. With an overhang over his head, he can’t even see the moon or stars, though he can recall it being fairly cloudy when he set out to Kaito’s place. To his right, there’s light spilling like water from the entrance onto the walkway, and some from high windows on the first story. Otherwise, the building is stoic in the night, with sharp corners that don’t seem to breathe.

Last time Yagami was at a hospital, he was fifteen years old and would suddenly be very alone in the world. His mother had clung to life for only a little, though his father and the man who did it were declared dead at the scene. 

Yagami chews on the knuckle of his thumb, not even noticing it until it starts to get sore. He scowls, but he’s too tired to do much about it, a nervous habit that he just can’t seem to shake. 

What month was it, January? That’s right, January of two-thousand-two. This year will mark four years since he turned up in Kamurocho, in the summer. He’ll be nineteen in November, Kaito will be twenty next month. 

Damn, the year had gone by through so quickly, felt like he was only just at Kaito’s apartment when he moved in last year. If he wanted to, he could sign up for entrance exams for this February- but there’s no way he’s prepared. Another year, at least.

His mind bounces from thought to though like a nervous moth. He still absent-mindedly chews on the back of his knuckle. 

Maybe he should call Matsugane. He cares about them both, beyond just being a patriarch or benefactor, but for whatever reason Yagami debates on it. 

He doesn’t get a chance to decide, because the hospital doors to his right slide open with a windy breath. Out walks Kaito with a limp. The hospital lights backlight him, bouncing off the bright colors of his button-down shirt. Yagami can’t see the extent of the bruises on his face with the harsh lighting, but he’s holding an ice pack to his brow with his good hand again. 

“Yo, Ta-bo,” he greets him. “It’s pretty cold out here, are you good?”   


Yagami stands (his legs were sort of starting to freeze to the bench). “I’m fine. What all happened? You free to go?”

“Yup. All good.” Kaito holds up his right hand, the one that had been stomped on. “Not broken, just real fuckin’ bruised. And I got, like, four stitches on the one on my eyebrow.” He frowns (or Yagami thinks so, it’s hard to see with the silhouette). “It’s gonna scar, apparently. My good looks will forever be spoiled.”

Yagami takes a deep breath. Holds it for a moment, then lets it out. He smiles. “I think your good looks will just be fine, Kaito. Some ladies find scars pretty hot, you know.”

“Hmm. True.”

They end up catching a taxi home. To Kaito’s, specifically. Yagami just means to see him home, but somehow, he ends up sleeping over. Guess he was just as tired. 

“You are both so reckless,” Matsugane says, his finishing statement. 

Both Kaito and Yagami stand in his office awkwardly. Yagami had swung by with Kaito when Kaito was heading in after the whole stitches ordeal, but somehow, they got caught in a lecture. Not a lecture, per se, but Matsugane has certainly mastered the ‘dissapointed’ look. 

“Sorry, sir,” Kaito says, dipping his head. Yagami does the same- he wasn’t even remotely involved in what happened to Kaito (only in fixing it) but he knows that this isn’t just about that. They’re both kind of reckless, if anything Yagami does on his odd jobs is anything to indicate it (he’s still sporting a bruise from when he pissed off somebody he was tailing), and he can’t really blame the patriarch for his disapproval. 

Matsugane looks at them both, then sighs. “Of course. You’re both still young. And considering how joined at the hip you are, of course you would both still get into trouble.”

Well, Yagami wasn’t sure how he felt about  _ that  _ comment- not that it wasn’t exactly true. 

“How are your studies, Ta-bo?” Matsugane asks, a total change of subject.

They talk for a little longer. Then Kaito gets called on by Captain Hamura to get his ass out on collections (Hamura eyes Yagami for a moment with some sharp expression that he can’t really place). Yagami waits in the office for a moment more, then heads out. He’s got places to be too. 

Kaito wakes up and realizes that he’s twenty years old. 

Hell, he almost forgot. Born February twenty-second. Funny though, for the past six months he’s been waiting in anticipation, past week too. And yet he wakes up and realizes he’s still the same damn guy. 

But he can legally drink now. And legally buy smokes. And is, by all means and purposes, a legal adult. Which is a bonus. 

Yagami takes him out for dinner, and insists on paying. “Any restaurant you want,” he promises. “As long as it’s something that I can afford.” 

They end up at that place on Shichifuku again, Kaito’s choice. The two of them waste no time in eating too much food and talking too loud, maybe drawing the ire of people around them; but then again it’s a Saturday night and at least they aren’t drunk.

Kaito reaches across the table and snatches a juicy looking piece of steak right before Yagami can grab it, and pops it into his mouth. He grins as Yagami glares at him. 

“You remember that I’m paying, don’t you?” Yagami says dryly.

“And it’s my birthday. I’m a grown man, Ta-bo. Fully adult.”

Yagami rolls his eyes, though he is smiling despite his sarcastic tone. “What, gonna start lecturing me?”   
“I can.” Kaito taps on his plate with his chopsticks, creating an annoying  _ ring ting ting  _ noise. He makes a voice like a crotchety old man. “You should sleep earlier, young man. Get those eight hours of sleep or whatever the fuck.” Definetly not his funniest line. Or even his most mediocrely-funny line. 

Yagami stares at him for a moment, his lips trembling with strain- then he bursts out laughing harder than Kaito’s ever seen. He lurches forwards, wheezing, and his whole form seems to shake with the laughter. It wasn’t even close to being a funny joke. 

Kaito can’t help but to break into laughter too. That laughter of Yagami is an infectious laugh, wheezy and almost like he can’t breathe, but no, he’s just laughing so hard it wracks his whole body. Kaito slaps his fist on the table as he howls- and he only realizes that he knocked a glass off the table when it shatters on the ground. 

The whole restaurant goes silent. 

Yagami’s lips are pursed  _ hard  _ now, and his shoulders are shaking, and his lips keep quirking up into a smile. Kaito can’t help but to flush with embarrassment with everybody looking at him. 

A waiter comes help clean up and get Kaito a new glass, and Kaito apologizes several times. At least there’s still good food on his plate left. 

Yagami lifts his own glass in the air, smiling. “Happy birthday, Kaito,” he says, and just like that laughter, a twin smile blooms on Kaito’s face. 

Kaito gets drunk later that night, since he’s now a legal man. 

“Not legally a man,” he tells Yagami, voice slurred. “But I figure I’ll tackle that when I can once I’ve got more money.”

Yagami does accompany him for that, as Kaito gets two six pack of beers to drink at his apartment (Kaito’s anikis promised that they’ll take him out for a proper pub crawl for his birthday, but they’re doing that next Wednesday). Yagami doesn’t drink more than a can of beer or two. He just fondly watches Kaito ramble on, face flushed, sloppier as the night went on. 

Not the first time either of them have drank before, of course. Drink is all around them, in the shiny heart of the city. Kaito’s good enough at passing as an adult to drink more regularly than Yagami, but Yagami just thinks hes using his birthday as an excuse. Good on him, really. 

“Now if I wanted,” Kaito is saying, “I  _ could  _ drink at Tender ‘cause the bartender can’t give me that lecture on underage drinking again.”

Yagami snickers. “Masuda isn’t mean. He is right, you know.”

“Maybe so.” Kaito leans back on his forearms, and grins. “But doesn’t matter now.”

They continue goofing off for the rest of the night. Mostly just inside jokes and conversations that don’t lead anywhere. Yagami takes his leave eventually, practically into the morning wishing Kaito happy birthday again as the door closes behind him. 

He takes a moment on the balcony to breathe, the crisp night air in his lungs. Then he begins his descent down the rickety metal stairs that clang under his feet, with the stars hanging over the roof of the building. 


End file.
